Muttonhawk

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Pudaga was about to accept the priestess' offer when Meesei interrupted. As to her question, Pudaga gave Meesei a grateful smile. "This one would appreciate if Meesei and her friends would stay with us to speak with this Brother Daranus. However, he understands if she must leave."

Given his apprehensiveness beforehand, Pudaga had tried not mentioned any names, but with the opportunity that the priestess had offered, he wanted to be more formal. He extended a hand to the priestess, "This may be a great help. Thank you. This one's name is Pudaga, his family is Gati, T'drissi, and little F'sresa," Pudaga extended a hand to point them out as he named them, "Might we know your name, priestess?"

"Tzirret does not keep up with such big matters," Tzirret remarked at the talk of Ma'tanza's impressions of Cyrodiil, "He hears that the Empire is not nearly as big as it was, but it is healing."

As for the altar that Ma'tanza had singled out, Tzirret found himself anticipating nerves. The bracelet he had made was still in Dibella's offering bowl, though Tzirret was not sure that Ma'tanza saw it. He had thought that Ma'tanza was distracted by the architecture. If that was the case, Tzirret hoped that Ma'tanza didn't recognise the bracelet as Tzirret's handiwork.

"Er, yes, La'khay is a follower of Dibella. Dibella is..." Tzirret looked up at the goddess' soft smile again and he began to rub his own shoulder with one hand nervously, "...she is a couple of things. She is the divine of art and beauty. You pray to her to spread beauty, or to make something beautiful. She also is...well...kind of the love goddess." Tzirret interrupted himself and gave a glance to the window of Mara, "...People call Mara the goddess of love as well, and people marry under Mara in the temple, but Mara's love is like family. Mara is the mother." Tzirret returned to Dibella and put involuntary pauses in his words, "Dibella is the love goddess as well, but for...when you love someone...in almost all other ways. So you pray to her for that as well."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Pudaga had a look on his face that told of a wish for the answers to the priestess' questions. All he had for sure was a sigh. His eyes averted from the priestess as he came up with what he thought he knew. "The path ahead is not clear right now. We have no connections in Leyawiin, or anywhere in Cyrodiil, really. If there is work to be had in the city, we will likely stay until we decide what to do - whether to try and head to another city in Elsweyr or somewhere else." Pugada put a hand to his chest, "This one is a potter by trade, but he will take any work available. My wife is a washerwoman, and my mother-in-law is a retired nanny, though..." Pudaga looked to her.

Gati smirked, "It there's a kitten that needs minding, this one could stand to work again. Though most of her work is minding this kitten here," Gati pointed to F'sresa.

"Yes, it goes the same for all of us, in recent days," Pudaga glanced to F'sresa. At least they had medicine for her. "All the same. Priestess, your offer is most generous."

While Tzirret had been into plenty of chapels before, he breathed in to answer Ma'tanza and found that he had no idea. "Well...at least as old as the city," he guessed, "Though, all the early stories about the divines have big, magical, powerful people, so Tzirret could believe it would be easier to build this back then."

Tzirret then turned his head around both ways in turn, looking for something. He stopped looking at the altar below a stained-glass window of a blue-green robed woman with a small smile. She had a circular halo of hair and a flower in her hand. Trying not to draw attention to it, Tzirret placed what looked to be a bracelet made from bone beads and leather into the offering bowl by the woman's altar. Tzirret gave the window one last hopeful look, and then turned to Ma'tanza with a smile.

"Tzirret does not remember much of his mother, but he does remember being told that there are some Khajiit gods in these places." Tzirret pointed to the man with the half-dragon-half-bearded-man head, "Alkosh and Akatosh are the same..." Tzirret's hand went to a similar blue-green woman to the one he left the bracelet for, but her face was more serious and her hands were cupped together, "...Khenarthi and Kynareth, too..." Tzirret pointed similarly to other windows, "...and Mara, S'rendarr...probably others as well. This one never paid them much attention. Imperials think they look like Imperials, though. That was always strange."

The Jade Stream

There we go. Normally when I write fighting combos, I get a little apprehensive about the possibility of the first strike hitting and the rest of the post amounting to desecrating a corpse, but this time I think I can be comfortable that the guy will survive.

The Jade Stream

While Kyang wondered if it was her shout that gave the bandit warning enough to parry her glaive, she had to work with what she had. The man was agile, that much was clear as Kyang's follow-up slice only cut through air as her opponent tumbled away. She stomped into a guarding stance with her blade forward and eyed down the man. She did not come all this way to talk trash.

"KYEEEE!" Kyang skipped forward and swung her blade up and to her left, wheeling it behind herself and striking out to cut the bandit at his left elbow. "HA!" With the weight and length of the weapon, she intended to keep the bandit off balance and out of reach respectively by transitioning into a combo of whirling cuts coming in from diagonals. The blade blurred around to the left shoulder, "HA!" it span around to the bandit's bottom-right, "HA!" Kyang struck at the bandit three more times in quick succession before breaking off, "DA! DA! KYA!"

In an instant, Kyang had stepped back and was back in her guard again. Her heart was racing, but she was not giving up any time soon. She knew a counter-attack would ensue. She intended to check and feint off all that she could. She would be paying more attention to flaws in the bandit's fighting, but she was counting on Torako to exploit openings, or force ones that Kyang could exploit herself.

The Jade Stream

Mkay, give me a moment.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Pudaga started by lowering F'sresa to the ground so she could stand, but she instead strode to her mother to lean on. When Pudaga was addressed by the priestess, he looked to her with some surprise. He had expected that Meesei and Gallus would do all the talking.

To encourage Pudaga, Gallus gestured to the priestess while looking at him.

"...Ours is a lengthy tale, priestess," Pudaga started slowly, he wasn't used to asking for help from a temple, let alone a temple of the Eight. "To make short words of it, this one and his family were taken from our home in Elsweyr to be sold as slaves by criminals. The slave ship we were on was dashed against rocks in a storm, marooning the crew and passengers on an island. The slavers were rescued by another ship that would not take us." Pudaga nodded sadly at Meesei, "These kind souls found us before we gave up to die. However..." Pudaga paused to moderate how much information he wanted to give, "We cannot go home. We will be taken again. We have nowhere else to go."

While the family spoke with the priestess, Tzirret knew that they would not have much time to take a look around the chapel. He lightly tugged on Ma'tanza's arm and began walking to see the other altars. "Come," he whispered. Once they were at a spot where they would not disturb anyone's prayers, Tzirret asked Ma'tanza without certainty in his voice, "So, um...do you like it?"

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Just in time for work, ha-ha! G'night!

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

The trip to the city ended up leaving Ma'tanza's previous question to Tzirret to the back on his mind. He had remembered by the time they reached the road, but Ma'tanza had not brought it up again and Tzirret did not feel the need to confront the issue.

The city itself was about the same as Tzirret remembered when they last visited, though the entry from a different angle gave it something of a new light.

The family was looking around curiously as well, but the temple dropped all their jaws, even half-asleep F'sresa.

Tzirret was of course familiar with temples of the Eight from childhood, so he found Ma'tanza's reaction to be amusing enough to let out a laugh. Now he knew what he looked like to others when he was overwhelmed by something new. "Just wait to see inside," Tzirret said, giving her a nudge, "The sun lights up the windows from outside and you can see all the colours."

Gallus had been inside Bruma's temple plenty of times, but he did not interact with the clergy at all. He looked at the doors apprehensively and leaned to Meesei. "So, how will this work? Just go in and ask the first priest we see?"

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

No problem.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Pudaga neutrally nodded as Tzirret spoke a translation of Meesei's words. "Yes, Pudaga thinks that will be suitable. Does everyone understand?" Pudaga looked about his family. Ti'drissi and Gati both nodded, while F'sresa gave a tired but affirmative hum.

"If that is the story, all the more reason for us to be quick about this," Gallus said, crossing his arms and giving a small smile, "Otherwise we'll have to hope that the priests do not question why our ships are not in the city docks."

After an uncertain moment, Tzirret translated that as well, but the family did not seem to have anything to add except ambivalent expressions.